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Well Friends,

Yesterday was such a blurr as the team arrived at Houston's IAH airport after two endurance flights from Entebbe to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Houston. Why does it always seem to go faster when we leave than when coming home?

Everyone arrived in good spirits and all the luggage that we put on the conveyor in Entebbe showed up on the conveyor at IAH. Our thanks to all who held us in their prayers for these last 2 weeks. God used this team in a mighty way! He not only allowed us to be encouragers to the pastors and elders at Bulucheke and Namaje villages last week, but we were able to demonstrate to fellow US missionaries that the joy of the Lord was with each team member while at Mt. Elgon Hotel.

Our ministry schedule ended up looking like this: Sunday, July 27th the team visited Kapchora and Muyembe churchs for Sunday service where the team preached and led men/women/children's Sunday School. Later that afternoon we visited Lulwanda Children's Home to spend a couple of hours with the kids at LCH.

Monday-Tuesday, July 28-29, had the team split with 3 people visiting/speaking at schools, 3 people visiting/preaching at prisons and the remainder of the team at Bulucheke where hut to hut evangelism occurred in the morning and outdoor crusades occurred in the afternoon.

Wednesday, July 30, was a repeat of Mon-Tues except we did not go to prisons.

Thursday, July 31, the team moved to Namaje village for morning hut to hut and afternoon crusades. A team of 3 people went to schools again and the remainder of the team hosted an afternoon field day at Lulwanda Children's Home for about 400 kids from inside LCH and the local village.

Friday, Aug 1, the team fielded 3 people again for schools and the rest of the team went hut to hut in Namaje, held afternoon crusade and spent time at LCH with the kids.

Saturday, Aug 2, was a repeat of Friday except no schools. The kids at LCH gave the team presentations of dancing and singing after lunch.

We have numerous stories to tell about each other and the work that God did in Uganda. From my perspective, this team was a group of unselfish and dedicated servants of the Lord and a joy to work beside. The Lord allowed this team to witness to Ugandan muslims, practicing Christians, Christians who have backslide and Christians who were "lazy". We ran into Catholics and 7th Day Adventist who wanted to debate just about anything except talk about the Gospel. And we even saw a former member of the Lords Resistance Army accept Jesus as his personal savior. Our time at the crusades impacted me this trip as we we took part in public altar calls and saw men and women come out of the crowd to come down to the front of the wooden stage to publically pray the sinners prayer. Of sweet memory to me was the Saturday crusade when Judy and Ann gave their powerful testimonies and Andrew illustrated how sin hardens and darkens our heart. At the end of this witnessing by the Muzungus, a 17ish year old boy came out of a crowd of his peers to walk to the front of the stage to receive Christ as his savior. It became especially sweet when Don saw him coming forward and was able to put his hand on him during the prayer. But as sweet was this new Christian man, a former member of the LRA, to join Don in placing HIS hand on the young man while the prayer was said. God let me watch a young man from Texas preach about sin, a young sinner from Uganda respond to the message, an older Christian servant from Texas extend a hand of fellowship to the young man, and then a new, baby Christian who was up in age and certainly knew he had a sinful past (LRA) join in the moment.

I asked the team as the week went on and they were growing weary "Would you come all this way and work this hard for just 1 person?" Without hesitation, each person responded they would come. Well, Team, God blessed us mightily last week with hundreds of people answering the question "Is there anything keeping you from accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior today?" with the response, "there is nothing". But just for good measure, the Lord added this last young man to the mix just to confirm that he is soverign and that this young man was special to HIM. I am so honored to have been a part of such a wonderful group of co-workers for Christ. God Bless each of you.

Team, I have one last question for you......

"Somewhere between the hot and the cold
Somewhere between the new and the old
Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be
Somewhere in the middle, You’ll find me

With eyes wide open to the differences,
the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle"--Casting Crowns

Did you spend last week knowing that you served the God we want or the God who is?
Did you spend last week feeling that you are caught in the middle?
Or did you trade your dreams for His?

I know the answer to the question I asked you during the opening devotional. You let the Ugandan people know... The Word is Alive!


Larry for the Uganda Team